I was once taught that when tracking a car, always in the back of one's mind remember that things can (and sometimes do) go wrong and that one should be prepared to be able to walk away from the investment of money, time, and emotion in the car should something bad happen on the track.
The other thing to remember, is to have a contingency plan to get to work on Monday morning should something break/blow up, ( or god forbid something worse happen) to your track car, if it is also your only daily driver. I have witnessed people face that reality on many occasions, and it can add to the stress of the breakdown incident.

Very wise advice, thank you. I face that reality every time I take my 8 on track, but I do it knowing I live downtown and can make it to work if something happens to the car. She has an FC that is potentially going to be THE track car, so the most this would see is a trackjunkies day or AutoX. Lots of seat time in my car including on track has been good prep for her (in terms of not pushing to write-off territory) also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrenan

You could easily talk this one down to $30K and it has basically no miles on it:

I was once taught that when tracking a car, always in the back of one's mind remember that things can (and sometimes do) go wrong and that one should be prepared to be able to walk away from the investment of money, time, and emotion in the car should something bad happen on the track.
The other thing to remember, is to have a contingency plan to get to work on Monday morning should something break/blow up, ( or god forbid something worse happen) to your track car, if it is also your only daily driver. I have witnessed people face that reality on many occasions, and it can add to the stress of the breakdown incident.

As long as the track day is not timed, your insurance is valid on track. ... Assuming you have collision.

I haven't come across anything super hard yet and I think I've had just about every common failure except vanos and subframe. I did my own valve adjustments and I'm happy to help and teach other local owners how to do it. The big thing is that dealer parts are horrendously expensive so you need to buy online and wait for parts to show up. It's also nice that there are lots of race parts available when the stock parts give up.

I have seen so many eastern cars that end up costing so much more in repairs later because everything is seized (that wouldn't be in an Alberta car). It isn't that they need that much more maintenance, it is just that the same jobs take more time/parts. I generally recommend against eastern cars.

I haven't come across anything super hard yet and I think I've had just about every common failure except vanos and subframe. I did my own valve adjustments and I'm happy to help and teach other local owners how to do it. The big thing is that dealer parts are horrendously expensive so you need to buy online and wait for parts to show up. It's also nice that there are lots of race parts available when the stock parts give up.

Good to know.. Yourself as a potential teacher is a nice bonus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt

Obviously an R3 RX8.

That's where I would probably go, but a key part of the search is to find something with torque off the line and for passing moments. A stock Renesis powered 8 is a car that you really have to plan passes on the highway with, and that you have to accept that if a modern minivan wants to race you off the line, you're probably going to lose.